


The others' War

by Cassiopeia_Sue_Prime



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, First Contact War, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:02:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7621177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cassiopeia_Sue_Prime/pseuds/Cassiopeia_Sue_Prime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where Shepard and her Crew fight in the First Contact War against the turians. Also the geth started attacking the Council Space and make the war between humans and turians even harder. Prepare for a lot of swearing. (Ah yes, and I suck at Summaries) <br/>- Tags will be updated with new chapters-</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finding the others

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Updated) I corrected some smaller grammar issues.

Commander Shepard stood next to Joker, one hand on his shoulder.

“Anything on the sensors?” She was pissed and by then you could hear it in her voice.

Joker shook his head. “Nothing. I'm starting to believe they are already gone.” For a moment he gazed up to her.

“No, they have to be here.” She clenched her teeth while Joker just sighed. Everyone on the ship was in tense. For now about three days the Normandy was in this Cluster searching for some ship of 'the others'. That's how the crew called the alien species which was in war with humanity. The Alliance had no official name for them, but according to the fact that they're the first alien species humanity ever met, they called this war the 'First Contact War'.

The aliens they were hunting, had allegedly stolen very delicate information from the Shanxi garrison right after its fall. They were hit but not very badly and could escape. So the Normandy was sent after them to get the data back. Shepard didn't see why some information could be so important that the most advanced ship of the Alliance has to follow them. But if Admiral Hackett thought it was necessary, she wouldn't argue.

At the moment they rounded a garden world with, according to the scans, an average temperature of 40 degrees celsius. She groaned in frustration and was about to turn around when one of the consoles started to peep slowly.

“We got something over here.” Joker started typing into his consoles again and in the next moment a blurred picture of a ship appeared. Shepard leaned closer to examine the ship.

“It's them!” She opened a com channel. “All hands on battle station. We found our prey.” Instantly everybody was moving, some lights turned red and an alarm rang on medium volume.

“Commander.” Joker drew her attention to himself. “They spotted us.” The enemy ship slightly turned their direction and was now on direct way to the Normandy. “Shit, fuck. Shields up! Prepare the Weapons, they are not going to make it easy to us.”

“Heat signature! They're charging their weapons!”

“Of course they are. Joker, I don't want a single scratch on my ship.”

“Yes, Ma'am.”

Shepard walked back to the CIC while giving all kind of orders. “Is Admiral Hackett informed we found the ship?” “Sorry Commander, the communication is dead.” She turned to the soldier who answered. “What do you mean with 'the communication is dead'?!” The young man stood up straight looking her into the eyes. “We lost contact with Alliance at the moment the ship appeared.” “Shit, so it's them. Where is my XO?” She asked while walking through the CIC. “On my way, Commander.” Alenko's voice sounds trough the com channel. A jolt let her stagger and forced her to hold tight to the console bar. The Lights flickered for a short moment and in another part of the ship the fire alarm rang.

“You call this 'no scratch', Joker?!” She yelled to the cockpit area while straightening herself up. “I'm doing the best I can, they put us into heavy fire.” As to confirm this statement the VI voice announced: “Shields at 40%”

“Fuck. What's with our main cannon?”

“Ready in 4, ...3, ...2, ...1... Fire!” The voice of the officer from the main battery proclaimed thru the com channel.

Shepard fought her way through the running crew members to the cockpit. “Joker?”

“We hit them right in the baby makers, their ship won't last long but we neither. Shields at 10% and we got several shell breaks all over the ship.”

“Emergency power to the Shields, give them all we have, we are not going down here because of this assclowns.”

“On it, Commander. ...Shit”

“What?!”

“Their main weapon is online again, thought we send that to hell.” A blue beam made its way to the Normandy the same time a torpedo clash the propulsion of the enemy ship. The beam hit the Normandy and a strong jolt went through the ship. Everywhere on the ships rang alarms and sparks flew from some consoles. The front window had a crack but you could still see the other ship slowly tilting to the nearby planet.

“Shields down. Emergency Power switched to live support. The Shuttle dock has a big shell break, no air left in there. Navigation offline. Weapons offline. Engine offline. We are going down with them.”

“Got it Joker. Everyone to the rescue capsules!” The rest of the crew fled to the capsules. She helped the wounded ones and gave some final orders before returning to the cockpit. “Joker you too.”

“No, maybe I can save...” She interrupted him angrily. “No, you can't, I won't let you die here just because of your dumb shit stubbornness.” Shepard started to lift him up. “Ahh, my arm!! Okay, okay I'm coming.” She helped him to the capsules when Kaidan appeared. “Commander, on the engineer deck are still people.”

“Why the hell aren't they moving?”

“I don't know...”

“Take Joker and escape, I will get them!”

Her XO was about to give objections. “Commander,...”

“That was an order, Lieutenant!”

“Of course, Ma'am.”

She watched them a short moment before an renewed yank shook the ship. “Out of here. NOW.” She pushed the release button and made her way to the engineer deck. But she didn't get far before the VI narrated: “No other live signs on board, Commander.” “Fucking Shit! Rescue capsule?” “One remaining on the crewdeck.”

On her way down to the crewdeck Shepard had to walk over one dozen dead bodies of people she knew for years. Each dead face burned into her memory. Just to bring up even worse memories. She could barely breath because of the smoke and she was nearly consciousless once she reached the capsule. While the capsule started she could see all the others capsules, the Normandy ones and the others' ones, through the small window before becoming unconscious.

 


	2. Meeting one of them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Updated) Corrected some small mistakes.

Hardness. Pain. And Light, much too bright. She tried to move a bit but didn't get far. Something was holding her back. Immediately she was wide awake, eyes wide open she looked around. A small round metallic room greeted her. A capsule? She look down at herself. The thing which was holding her back was the belt.

Pictures flashed through her inner eye. The enemy ship. The fight. The final shot, for both ships. The way down to the crewdeck. All the dead people. Her People. Helen, Silas, Richard, Jamin and all the others. Some of them she even knew before she got onto the Normandy.

“Shit.” She hissed, rubbing her face with both hands. She hated it when people die. That was one of her greatest fears, her stuff for sleepless nights and nightmares. She knew it was somehow stupid, she was a soldier and so were they. In war it's normal that people die but that didn't mean she had to like it.

She opened the belt and stood up to her bit shaky legs. The capsule landed quite obliquely, so it was hard to stand on the plain floor. She climbed up to the equipment hatch and opened it. “Let's see, what I got.” Backpacks, she took one and looked into the hatch again. Found empty water bottles with filters and packed two. She got through the rest of the stuff. The capsule was prepared for up to six people so she was quite lucky.

At the end she had the two bottles with extra filters, some dry food rations, a sleeping bag, an oxygen mask, a first-aid-kit, a Walkie-Talkie, a cap (the one Joker likes to wear) and a extra jacket with hood she bound around her hip. And last but not least Pistol which she wore at her right tight. It was the standard equipment for Alliance rescue capsules, but all in all she was, for her situation, good equipped. Probably much better than the most of her remaining crew. At that thought she shouldered the backpack, and slipped down to the entry hatch.

When she opened it, hot dry air shoved its way into the small sphere. She jumped outside and landed on a meadow in a small grove. The Forest reminded of a rainforest. Not that she ever was in one, but that's how she have would imagine it. She took some steps before looking up to the sun which was brighter and bigger than the one in the Sol System. According to the position of the sun she assumed it had to be early forenoon. It was already pretty hot, presumably around thirty degrees Celsius. Shepard was happy she wore the Casual Crewman's alliance outfit with the short sleeve.

She got back to capsule. In the backpack was an small pocketbook and she wanted to leave a note in case one of her crew got here. They should know that she was alive and looking for them, also that there is still equipment in the hatch. She clamped the note at the entry before she turned around. She took one step while perceiving a small movement in the corner of her eye, followed by a slight rustle. She took another step before she drew her weapon and turning to noise in one smooth motion.

“Out of there!” she shouted. A high pitched squeak and something, which appears to be a monkey similar animal, rushed out of the bushes and up a nearby tree. She lowered her weapon and looked the little animal with the long tail after. “The great Commander Shepard scared by a monkey. Marvelous.” Laughing about herself she put the cap on and made her way into the jungle like forest.

 

* * *

 

 

She was wandering through the tangled maze of all kinds of unknown and exotic looking plants, some with strange colors like a flashy pink or turquoise, not knowing if she went in the right direction. She presumed the days are shorter than on earth too. Since she started were certainly less than two hours passed but looking at the sun it should be nearly noon. The whole way she tried in even intervals to reach someone over radio but the merciless white noise.

Short time later she passed a small stream. She filled her two bottles, and walked down river while waiting for the filters, so she could finally drink something this burning hell. She drank one bottle without settle once. She refilled it and walked further downriver not knowing where else to go. The stream started getting wider and the ground a bit marshy. The further she got the more muddy was the ground. She could feel her shoes and trouser bottoms getting wet and didn't helped her mood to get better. She decided to move away from the stream which was by then more a small river.

Shepard had natural tanned skin but nevertheless it started to get red and sting. To protect it from the sunshine she decided to wear the extra jacked. Which was black. “There are places on Earth where this is called low-temperature cooking. Seriously, I can feel my organs slowly getting cooked. If I don't...” She stopped her grumbling abruptly. She wasn't alone. She automatically switched to a crouching pose slowly moving towards the other person. She hoped she found one of her crew. She got half in cover behind a tree with a thick trunk and looked carefully around it. _It_ wasn't one of her crew. _It_ was one them. “Shit.” She hissed. _It_ didn't notice her jet. The alien had _it_ 's back turned to her. She couldn't see what _it_ was doing and she didn't really care. _It_ 's armor was silver blue and looked a bit damaged. Maybe _it_ got injured through a shoot from the Normandy or while landing on this planet. Never mind.

Without making a single noise she drew her weapon. She leaned out of cover again. Just as she was ready to shoot one of the annoying monkey things uttered a warning cry. Then everything happened fast. She looked up to see some of the jumping and climbing away form the tree she knelt. It obtained probably a nest of these. “Shit. Again.” When she looked back to the alien she caught _it_ drawing _it_ 's own weapon. She shot but only scraped _it_ 's arm. _It_ made a strange noise and before she could shoot again _it_ took this opportunity itself and shot. She'd hit _it_ s fire arm so the bullet just scratched her wrist but she lost her pistol and had to go back to cover. She looked at the wound it wasn't that bad but bled strongly.

She reached for her weapon but something hit her in the side. The alien threw itself on top of her. _It_ tore at her backpack and a strap ripped off. Damn, _it_ was strong and fast. She punched her elbow into _it_ s face and crawled away before turning around. The gray one made this strange sound again before following her. She kicked _it_ s foot so _it_ stumbled and landed on her again. She kicked _it_ again and rolled over so she sat on top of _it_. She punched _it_ in _it_ s face with her fist this time but _it_ caught her wrist before she could beat _it_ again. _It_ twisted her arm and she led a painful cry out. _It_ twisted her arm behind her back and pushed her to the ground. Now the alien was on top and started chocking her with this creepy the fingered hand and talons which bored themselves into the soft skin of her neck.

With her one arm trapped beneath herself she had only one arm to push _it_ off. Considering that this thing probably weight about 300 pounds this was a very dumb plan. She made a choking noise and started to feel dizzy when she moved her to _it_ s face an tore at, well what ever this things at _it_ s mouth were. _It_ let her free with a small cry and she crawled coughing away. She tried to get up but _it_ was faster and kicked her in the abdomen.

 

The heat, the pain and the lack of oxygen made her feel dull and helpless. Shepard tried to get up again. This time she was lifted up. She wiggled and fought to get free even through she was completely disoriented. Her back was slammed against something hard before her arms were lifted above her head. After the dizziness started to fade she looked up. Her wrists were bound together over a thick branch with some strange orange rings. Alien handcuffs, great. Her tiptoes barely touched the ground. She pulled and tore at them but they didn't move a bit.

“Shit. Fuck. God damn hell. Bastard. Aahh, fuck it” After several minutes she finally gave up and she went on watching her strange captor. Just to catch _it_ rummaging through her back.

“HEY! Get your dirty hands off my stuff.” She kicked some mud into _it_ s direction, not excepting to really hit _it_. “Oops.” The alien slowly turned around, still kneeing. Some mud felt from _it_ s head, she snorted. _It_ quickly stood and walked into her direction.

“No, no, no, Don't come near me.” The alien stopped directly in front of her. “I said **Don't.** You are way to close.” _It_ answered something in _it_ s weird language. “Yes, fuck you, too, pal.” _It_ leaned closer and smelled at her neck. “Are you sniffing me, pervert? What the hell?” She tried to bend away from _it_. _It_ backed off. Talked again. Now _it_ studied her from head to toe.

“What?” _It_ reached out for her touched her exposed belly. Somehow gently but it still hurt. Her top probably slipped out of her trousers and she scratched her stomach during the fight. She did not even notice it. _It_ hand slipped even higher bared more of her belly. The feeling of _it_ s talons on her bare skin gave her the creeps and she got goosebumps all over her body. _It_ talked again seemed somewhat fascinated and moved _it_ s hand over her skin. A shiver ran through her body. That was enough. She kicked _it_ back with one foot.

“Get off me!” _It_ stumbled backwards. Just to make some growling noise and hit her with full strength in her face. Stars appeared in front of her eyes and she tasted blood. There was also something hot, wet on her cheek. One of _it_ s talons had cut her skin. “That hit home.” She groaned. _It_ talked something in _it_ s rumbling language back. “Thank you for the flowers.” _It_ grunted in respond.

 

* * *

 

 

The following time they spent in silence. It gotten dark and the temperature sunk. Maybe even down to 5 degrees Celsius but it felt colder because of her wet clothing. The Space bird – how Shepard now called her Captor – had built up a white box which looked a bit like lantern. The knee high thing started glowing slightly and _it_ had settled down next to it in something what could be an alien version of a sleeping bag.

She felt terrible. Broadly said. Blood had run down her arm, neck and cheek and was dry know which gave her a strain feeling. Her head ached and her back was probably covered with bruises. Her neck was sore and it hurt to swallow. Her left arm hurt, her right one was numb except for the pulsing graze at her wrist. Her stomach pained in different ways. She know remembers where she got the scratches; from his kick. The pinching pain suggested that her front looked similar to her back. She was hungry, she hadn't eaten much only a small portion of the dry food. She was thirsty. She was tired but couldn't sleep. And she was cold. She was so god damn cold, shivering uncontrollable, chattering teeth. Her breath visible in small clouds in front of her mouth.

And all she could do was covering herself in self-pity. But she didn't make a noise. She would keep the last bit pride and wouldn't make a single sound. She clenched her teeth to have something to concentrate on except for the pain. She thought of her crew. And her dad. Even she didn't want to. He'd always known what to do. How to draw a smile on her face even she wanted to cry. How to settle things without starting a fight. Always knowing an advise. She missed him. She missed him so much. She could feel tears burning in her eyes.

She didn't recognize even the alien until _it_ made a sound. Her head snapped up and felt immediately dizzy again. _It_ talked again. “What do you want?” The space bird made another sound. “Go away.” She turned her head away. _It_ stood in front of her for a couple of seconds, motionless, before reaching up to her wrists. She didn't flinched. She didn't had the strength to stand on her own but _it_ caught her. Lifted her up and carried her back to the provisionally camp, sat her down onto the sleeping bag. Maybe she should have been anxious but she felt just numb. Numb and painful.

 _It_ put her backpack in front of her. She looked up to _it_ . “Why are you helping me?” _It_ tilted her head to the one side seemingly confused. _It_ knelt down next to her opened her backpack ransacked it until _it_ got her food, water bottle and sleeping bag. She took some bites and sips while _it_ opened her sleeping bag and laid it next to _it_ s. Shepard put the food and water back into her backpack. She crawled onto her sleeping bag and _it_ got into _it_ s. When she was in hers _it_ pulled her closer.

Well, that was awkward. But she accepted it. _It_ was so warm. She had to move much around to find a position which didn't hurt or well hurt the less, in her new situation. The silver gray alien just let her be. After she found a position which fit, the space bird laid an arm around her and she didn't had enough time to wonder before she finally fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

 

When she awoke there was a strange picture in front of her eyes. Some sort of gray plates, she stared at them for a couple of moments before got what that was. _It_ was _it_ s chest. She didn't realized the evening before that _it_ got out of _it_ s armor. She had the strange urge to touch _it_ but refused to pursue this want. She looked up to _it_ s face. _It_ s bird like eyes where closed and _it_ s breathing was even and calm. For what she could tell _it_ was asleep. She rolled to her back just to get a painful reminder of what happened yesterday.

 _It_ s arm was still laying on her and it was a time consuming challenge to get it of her without waking _it_ up. When she was was finally free, she sat up and looked around. Sun was already up but the canopy was so close that nearly no ray of sunshine got through it. Carefully she stood up. She really had to use the little Shepard's, well, bush.

When she came back _it_ was awake. She sat down on her sleeping bag and dug in her backpack and brought her food and first-aid-kit to light. Ignoring _it_ , she ate something and started to clean herself up a bit. She looked around again this time searching unobtrusively for her pistol which should lay somewhere in the mud. She couldn't find it.

Sighing she grabbed the first-aid-kit. Her stomach looked like she'd expected it, but her back didn't was that bad. Even the cuts and scrapes were not as worse as expected. But some of them would leave a scar behind. The temperature was already over 30 degrees Celsius again so she didn't freeze even through she was sitting there in just her pans and bra. But knowing _it_ 's eyes on her naked skin let her get goose bumps. She wasn't prudish. Living on ships since she was born, she became really hardened when it comes to nudity.

She hurried to get dressed again and then looked at the alien next to her. _It_ looked back. She didn't knew why she came back, why she didn't got her stuff and ran for what it's good. Maybe it was because _it_ helped her. Because _it_ didn't let her hand at that god damn tree and let her freeze. _It_ huffed and sat up without breaking eye contact. _It_ laid one hand on his chest. “Garrus.”

She raised her eyebrows. “That nearly sounded like a word.”

 _It_ did it again. “Garrus.”

“What, that's your name? Garis?”

“Garrus.” _It_ repeated.

“Yes, I got it.” She sighed and turned to _it_ – well, him. She laid her hand onto her chest. “Shepard.”

“Shraperd.” He tried.

“Well, almost. Shepard.”

“Shepard.”

“Exactly, space bird Garrus.”

He got up and started dressing himself. Wait. So he'd been naked all the time? Not that she cared but there wasn't anything, you know, between the legs. He noticed her starring and looked at her. “Shepard.” She looked away quickly, feeling a slight heat on her cheeks. This was stupid, she was acting like a teenager. She got up herself and started to pack her things.

As soon as the camp was broken down, the two looked at each other. Somehow they came to the silent agreement that they would go together from now on. He handed her her cap. Well, not as good as her weapon but it was a start. Although she doubted he would give her her pistol back. Not after she tried to shoot him in the back. She put her cap on and the uneven pair started walking. This was going to be interesting.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. This is my first english FF, I hope you enjoyed it. If you find any logic/grammar/spelling mistakes, I would appreciate it if you tell me. I'm not english so sometimes it's hard to express everything right. Please tell me what you liked/didn't like and if you want see more.


End file.
